Open Source Software Licensing and Business Models. Paper presented at the Asia-Pacific Decision Sciences Institute

The primary goal of this research is to study the role of licensing in the software industry. First, the present research will compare proprietary and Open Source Software (OSS) licensing. Then, the study will compare existing business models associated with various open source software licensing approaches. Open source software is in early stages of its life cycle and since the source code is open or freely distributable, licensing will play a big role in the success of projects that use open source software. Therefore, the results of the present paper would shed light on licensing issues that should be considered carefully when developing an IT application using open source software. 1. Open Source Software Licensing and Business Models Software developers market their products based on a licensing method. Currently, two major licensing methods dominate software licensing- proprietary and open source. The licensing methods influence the business models used by the software developers to market their products. Therefore, business models and software licensing methods are interlinked. Further, software developers use a multiplicity of licensing methods within the open source approach. The primary goal of this research is to study the role of licensing in the software industry. First, the presen